وَمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُم بِالَّتِي تُقَرِّبُكُمْ عِندَنَا زُلْفَىٰ إِلَّا مَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَأُولَـٰئِكَ لَهُمْ جَزَاءُ الضِّعْفِ بِمَا عَمِلُوا وَهُمْ فِي الْغُرُفَاتِ آمِنُونَ
It is not your wealth, nor your children, that will bring you close to Us in nearness, excepting those who have faith and act righteously. It is they for whom there will be a twofold reward for what they did, and they will be secure in lofty abodes.
وَالَّذِينَ يَسْعَوْنَ فِي آيَاتِنَا مُعَاجِزِينَ أُولَـٰئِكَ فِي الْعَذَابِ مُحْضَرُونَ
As for those who contend with Our signs seeking to frustrate [their purpose], they will be brought to the punishment.
قُلْ إِنَّ رَبِّي يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ وَيَقْدِرُ لَهُ ۚ وَمَا أَنفَقْتُم مِّن شَيْءٍ فَهُوَ يُخْلِفُهُ ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ الرَّازِقِينَ
Say, ‘Indeed my Lord expands the provision for whomever of His servants that He wishes and tightens it, and He will repay whatever you may spend, and He is the best of providers.’
وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ يَقُولُ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ أَهَـٰؤُلَاءِ إِيَّاكُمْ كَانُوا يَعْبُدُونَ
On the day He will muster them all together, He will say to the angels, ‘Was it you that these used to worship?’
قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ أَنتَ وَلِيُّنَا مِن دُونِهِم ۖ بَلْ كَانُوا يَعْبُدُونَ الْجِنَّ ۖ أَكْثَرُهُم بِهِم مُّؤْمِنُونَ
They will say, ‘Immaculate are You! You are our wali, not they! No, they used to worship the jinn; most of them had faith in them.’
فَالْيَوْمَ لَا يَمْلِكُ بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ نَّفْعًا وَلَا ضَرًّا وَنَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا ذُوقُوا عَذَابَ النَّارِ الَّتِي كُنتُم بِهَا تُكَذِّبُونَ
‘Today you have no power to benefit or harm one another,’ and We shall say to those who did wrong, ‘Taste the punishment of the Fire which you used to deny.’
وَإِذَا تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُنَا بَيِّنَاتٍ قَالُوا مَا هَـٰذَا إِلَّا رَجُلٌ يُرِيدُ أَن يَصُدَّكُمْ عَمَّا كَانَ يَعْبُدُ آبَاؤُكُمْ وَقَالُوا مَا هَـٰذَا إِلَّا إِفْكٌ مُّفْتَرًى ۚ وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِلْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ إِنْ هَـٰذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ
When Our manifest signs are recited to them, they say, ‘This is just a man who desires to keep you from what your fathers used to worship.’ And they say, ‘This is nothing but a fabricated lie.’ The faithless say of the truth when it comes to them: ‘This is nothing but plain magic,’
وَمَا آتَيْنَاهُم مِّن كُتُبٍ يَدْرُسُونَهَا ۖ وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْهِمْ قَبْلَكَ مِن نَّذِيرٍ
though We did not give them any scriptures that they might have studied, nor did We send them any warner before you.
وَكَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَمَا بَلَغُوا مِعْشَارَ مَا آتَيْنَاهُمْ فَكَذَّبُوا رُسُلِي ۖ فَكَيْفَ كَانَ نَكِيرِ
Those who were before them had also denied—and these have not attained one-tenth of what We had given them—they impugned My apostles, so how was My rebuttal!
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulating Ṭabarsī (Majmaʿ al-Bayān) [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], al-Qummī [qummi], al-Ṭūsī (al-Tibyān) [tusi_al_tibyan], al-Baḥrānī (al-Burhān) [bahrani_al_burhan], and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) [tabatabai_al_mizan]; the published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] runs alongside.
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is a single coarse bayān unit covering vv. 31–54; its English here was condensed to the 37–45 portion (surrounding material and the long baḥth riwāʾī summarized in brackets). Flagged
needs_human_review.
What the passage says. The unit answers the affluent deniers' boast (v. 35, "we have more wealth and children"). Verse 37 denies that wealth or children bring zulfā (nearness) to God; the lone avenue is faith plus righteous deed, whose reward is jazāʾ al-ḍiʿf (the multiplied recompense) and security in the ghurufāt (lofty chambers). Verse 39 turns to the believers: God expands and restricts provision, and "whatever you spend, He replaces it" (yukhlifuhu). Verses 40–42 stage the Day's tribunal: God asks the angels "did these worship you?" and they reply subḥānaka anta walīyyunā — "rather they worshipped the jinn." Verses 43–45 return to this-worldly denial ("a man who would bar you," "a forged lie," "manifest magic"), noting the deniers had neither scripture nor prior warner, and have not reached a miʿshār (tenth) of the strength of ruined nations before them — "so how was My nakīr (reproach)!"
Lexis and qirāʾāt. All four classical commentaries gloss zulfā as qurbā (proximity); Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] cites Mujāhid and parses it as an accusative verbal noun. On ghurufāt, Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] both record the qirāʾa dispute: Ḥamza alone reads the singular al-ghurfa (citing 25:75), the rest the plural — "upper rooms above the buildings." Both treat jazāʾ al-ḍiʿf as a generic noun for manifold reward ("ten for one, and beyond"); Ṭabarsī adds Abū Muslim's minority gloss that al-ḍiʿf here = al-mithl (the like of their worldly bliss). On v. 38, Ṭūsī uniquely preserves the muʿājizīn / muʿajjizīn distinction (with alif = "racing ahead/outstripping"; without = "hindering others"), and Ḥafṣ's yāʾ-reading of vv. 40. On yukhlifuhu, all agree the sense is divine substitution ("either in this world by increased bounty, or in the Hereafter by reward"); al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī expressly borrows Ṭabarsī's lexical note akhlafa Allāhu lahu wa-ʿalayhi. For v. 45, miʿshār = ʿushr (one-tenth) is the unanimous reading, ascribed by Ṭūsī and Ṭabarsī to al-Ḥasan, Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatāda; nakīr = the punishment that is God's reproach.
The jinn — where the sources diverge. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī give two glosses: the dominant one is that "worshipping the jinn" = obeying jinn who summoned the idolaters to angel-worship, the secondary that "the jinn" means Iblīs and his offspring. Ṭūsī adds the vivid detail that the jinn fashioned images and said "these are the angels' forms," so blame falls on both worshipper and worshipped — because the angels never consented, but the jinn did. Al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] sharpens this into his signature reading: the jinn are one of three classes the pagans worshipped (angels, jinn, saints), worshipped to ward off their feared evils; the iḍrāb ("rather…") proves the jinn consented. He explicitly rejects the "Iblīs/obedience" gloss on the ground that the verse says īmān (belief), not ṭāʿa (obedience). The published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] follows the older line (jinn = Satan and evil beings whose temptations were obeyed).
The Shīʿī taʾwīl (as-attributed). Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] both carry the v. 45 narration (via Hishām/Hāshim b. ʿAmmār) that "what was given the former messengers did not reach a tenth of what was given Muḥammad and the Family of Muḥammad." Al-Burhān's two ḥadīths on v. 39 (one through al-Kulaynī, one via Ḥarīz) pair the unfulfilled yukhlifuhu with 40:60's unanswered udʿūnī, resolving both by conditions — proper supplicatory adab, and lawful earning and spending — and report the nightly descent of the divine command calling "grant every spender a replacement." Al-Mīzān's traditions section adds (from al-Ṣādiq) that the dutiful rich man's reward is doubled, citing v. 37. These are reported as their sources give them, not adjudicated here.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.